In many hydraulically actuated devices, such as brake systems, fuel systems, or other machine systems, valve assemblies can be used to control the operation of components of the system. A valve assembly may open to allow fluid communication between two or more passages to hydraulically move a piston or actuator. For example, one passage may communicate with another passage through the valve so that fluid in a high pressure passage can be drained to a low pressure passage, and the system can be reset for its next operation event.
One conventional valve assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,859 (the '859 patent) issued to Smith. The '859 patent describes a pressure relief valve having a valving element assembly slideably disposed within a housing having inlet and outlet ports. The valving element assembly has a differential area. The pressure of the fluid within a force control chamber acting on the differential area of the valving element assembly urges the valving element assembly against the bias of a spring to control the flow of fluid between the inlet port and the outlet port of the housing.
Although the pressure relief valve of the '859 patent may be a cartridge assembly adapted to be disposed in a block arrangement, the pressure relief valve of the '859 patent does not provide pressure amplification that may be useful in various machine systems.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.